Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet - Page Text Content

FC: Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet | By: Sarahelena Barrios and Teresa Lin

1: How does where you come from change who you are? | Henry's Father | Keiko | Henry | Henry's Mother | Chaz

2: Keiko | -Keiko's parents stressed the face that she was American | - She was born and raised in America | - She wasn't Japanese and that was how she was brought up | " "I'm Japanese. But American first." ..."Did your parents tell you to say that?'''''"... "Yes. They did." pg 24

3: Henry's Father | - Henry's father came from a country at war | - His world still revolves around the war | - Even though he isn't in china he wants to give all he cam to the war effort there | "- a chance for him to return to China, a place he'd never known, never been, to live with relatives he'd never met. to his father, this was the most precious thing he could give Henry... part of him wanted to go, at least to be able to come back with an understanding of what made his father who he was." pg 238

4: Henry | The only person he can really connect with is Keiko because they are stuck between two worlds | He was born as a Chinese American and doesn't fit in with Americans or the Chinese because of his father's decisions | " I was born here, I don't even speak the same dialect as the village he came from. I wont fit in there any more than i fit in at the all-white school he sent me to. pg 238 | oai deki te ureshii desu

5: Henry's Mother | "He sensed the conflict in his mother- wanting to obey her husband's wishes but not wanting to loose her son" pg 240 | She was raised and told to always be a good wife | She doesn't want to upset her husband | She is living in this new world and doesn't want to loose her son

6: chaz | "... from prominent local families.... Chaz's family owned several apartment buildings downtown. Henry always thought Chaz would end up as his family's bill collector. He liked to lean on people." pg 17 | He has been surrounded by people who are just like him all his life and Henry and Keiko are the first people he has known that are different | He goes to an almost an all white school and for the first time there is someone who is different from him

7: Quotes from Letters | Wherever you come from: -"they both value school and family even though they have different ways of valuing them." | - Some people have "a more 'modern' way of thinking"